The present application relates to physiologically active substance collecting devices and biological information acquisition methods, specifically to physiologically active substance collecting devices used to acquire physiologically active substances from the body surface of a living organism.
Known methods of acquiring information concerning stress, emotion, menstrual cycle, and other conditions of a living organism (hereinafter, “information concerning a living organism” or, simply, “biological information”) include biological information acquisition methods that are based on psychological evaluations involving, for example, questioning and sensory questionnaires, physiological tests measuring, for example, brain waves or myoelectricity, and behavior measurements involving the use of, for example, a work record. For example, JP-A-2006-94969 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technique that determines the menstrual cycle based on heart rates. Japanese Patent No. 2582957 (Patent Document 2) discloses a life activity monitoring system that monitors body temperature fluctuations and heart rates.
In recent years, simpler techniques have been developed that acquire information concerning a living organism with the use of a physiologically active substance contained in blood, urine, or saliva as an index. For example, JP-A-11-38004 (Patent Document 3) discloses a method for quantifying stress using the concentration of adrenal cortical steroid and/or its metabolic products in saliva as an index. JP-A-2000-131318 (Patent Document 4) discloses a method that allows the stress level to be grasped as either “comfortable” or “uncomfortable” using biological substances such as β-endorphin, dopamine, immunoglobulin A, and prostaglandin D2 contained in blood or in other body parts as an index.